


Chat

by ProgramasaurusRex



Category: Silicon Valley (TV)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-28
Updated: 2017-03-28
Packaged: 2018-10-12 00:42:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 751
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10478214
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ProgramasaurusRex/pseuds/ProgramasaurusRex
Summary: Dinesh and Gilfoyle bond over their new chat client





	

A few months ago, when Dinesh was just starting to build the text only mode on his his video chat, he'd sent Gilfoyle a "Hello, World!" message as a test. Gilfoyle had promptly replied, "Hello, Asshole!" He then hacked into Dinesh's buddy list and added a user called 'cocksucker94'. Since then, they'd been casually chatting throughout the work day, creating a whole list of fake users, pretending to be teenage girls sometimes, or cocksucker94 chatting to his boyfriend dildoes_all_day, letting their playful sides run free. It was nice to have an asynchronous break from coding from time to time, and seeing the program being actively used for something fun made Dinesh want to work harder on it. He was creating a place where he felt comfortable -- he could say things through his chat user personas he never would have said in person. Now, it was like the software had taken on their personalities, their inside jokes coded into every keyboard shortcut and custom emoji, every good thing about their friendship in nine hundred lines of code.

This morning, Dinesh had sent Gilfoyle a typical morning message from cocksucker94: 'Choked on any vibrators lately?'

dildoes_all_day did not respond, which was rare because he was usually eager to show off the quickness of his wit. All morning, Dinesh had anticipated his reply. Maybe Gilfoyle was just busy coding something complex.

At lunch Gilfoyle had simply sat there, lost in thought, not insulting Dinesh at all. Dinesh was getting slightly worried.

"You're quiet today," said Dinesh.

Gilfoyle shrugged. He looked like he was pretty down about something. Dinesh decided to ask him what was up later, in private.

That afternoon, cheer_angel_xoxo sent mermaidgurl all sorts of goofy memes. They'd had some epic picture battles in the past, trying to use the most obscure image file formats they could think of, J2K's and TTF files with the words replaced with images and raw binary arrays until the whole thing devolved into a massive pile of ASCII dicks. But Gilfoyle wouldn't take the bait today. The hours passed slowly without him.

After a silent dinner, Dinesh followed Gilfoyle down the hallway to their bedrooms. As Gilfoyle moved to disappear into his room, Dinesh tapped him on the shoulder. 

Gilfoyle spun around and looked at Dinesh. For perhaps the first time in their lives, they shared a second of eye contact in which each side meant the other only kindness.

"Hey," said Dinesh, hoping the rest would come across on its own.

Gilfoyle looked down.

"What's wrong?" said Dinesh. And the gentle tone felt so foreign in his mouth, but at the same time, honest.

Gilfoyle appeared to be warring with himself. "I'm fine," he said finally, unconvincingly, a little bit more vulnerable than he'd ever been with Dinesh.

"Come in here a second," said Dinesh, guiding Gilfoyle into his own bedroom. Gilfoyle followed obediently. Dinesh closed the door and they both sat down.

"It's okay," said Dinesh, trying to catch his friend's eye. "I won't ..."

Gilfoyle just sat there. Dinesh wasn't sure what to do now. Gilfoyle always knew what was wrong with Dinesh; why didn't Dinesh have the slightest idea what was wrong with Gilfoyle? Was he actually a worse friend than the man who had been trying to ruin his life for three years?

"Is this a ... a Satanist thing? You can't ... what was it ... you can't tell me your troubles unless you're sure I want to hear them?"

Gilfoyle smiled a little. "You actually remembered the rules," he said.

"Well yeah," said Dinesh. "They're like a manual for your brain. So ... I want to hear your troubles," he said uncertainly.

"It's not a magic spell," said Gilfoyle. "I know you want to hear my troubles. I'm ... surprised and grateful for that. But ..."

And Dinesh understood. It wasn't that Gilfoyle didn't want to share. It was that he didn't know how. It was as if the language they needed to communicate didn't exist.

"Please don't shut me out," Dinesh said.

Gilfoyle nodded once. He sat in silence for a minute more. Then, he picked up his phone. At first Dinesh thought he was being brushed off. But then he realized: Gilfoyle was typing in the mobile app. Their mobile app, the one only the two of them even had on their phones yet because they'd just finished it last week.

After a few minutes, Dinesh's phone buzzed. He picked it up and red a long, long wall of text. And then he started typing.


End file.
